Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a general mechanism of transcript diversification in mammals, which has been recently linked to proliferative states and cancer. Different 3' untranslated region (3' UTR) isoforms interact with different RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), which modify the stability, translation, and subcellular localization of the corresponding transcripts. Although the heterogene...

Co-transcriptional pre-mRNA processing relies on reversible phosphorylation of the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of Rpb1, the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RNAP II). In this study, we replaced in live cells the endogenous Rpb1 by S2A Rpb1, where the second serines (Ser2) in the CTD heptapeptide repeats were switched to alanines, to prevent phosphorylation. Although slower, S2A RNAP II ...

The stability of mRNA is one of the major determinants of gene expression. Although a wealth of sequence elements regulating mRNA stability has been described, their quantitative contributions to half-life are unknown. Here, we built a quantitative model for Saccharomyces cerevisiae based on functional mRNA sequence features that explains 59% of the half-life variation between genes and predict...

The biological fate of each mRNA and consequently, the protein to be synthesised, is highly dependent on the nature of the 3' untranslated region. Despite its non-coding character, the 3' UTR may affect the final mRNA stability, the localisation, the export from the nucleus and the translation efficiency. The conserved regulatory sequences within 3' UTRs and the specific elements binding to the...

Circadian mRNA oscillations are the main feature of core clock genes. Among them, period 2 is a key component in negative-feedback regulation, showing robust diurnal oscillations. Moreover, period 2 has been found to have a physiological role in the cell cycle or the tumor suppression. The present study reports that 3'-untranslated region (UTR)-dependent mRNA decay is involved in the regulation...

During a viral infection, in addition to cellular mRNAs, amounts of viral mRNAs have to be efficiently transported to the cytoplasm for translation. It is now established that herpesviruses encode a conserved gene family whose proteins act as viral mRNA export factors that mediate nucleocytoplasmic transport of viral transcripts and eventually modulate through this mechanism the antiviral respo...

Deployment of the bicoid morphogen gradient in early Drosophila embryos requires the prelocalization of bicoid mRNA to the anterior pole of the egg. This anterior localization is mediated by a cis-acting localization signal contained within the 3' untranslated region of the bicoid mRNA. Here we use a series of bicoid transgenes carrying small deletions in the 3' untranslated region to survey fo...

Intron-containing genes are generally expressed more effectively in human cells than are intronless versions of the same gene. We have asked whether this effect is due directly to splicing or instead reflects the action of components of the exon junction complex (EJC) that is assembled at splice junctions after splicing is completed. Here, we show that intron removal does not enhance gene expre...

To investigate the importance of sequences between the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) branch point (TACTAAC box) and 3' splice site (AG), we generated a series of pre-mRNA substrates that differed in the length of RNA retained on the 3' side of the TACTAAC box. These pre-mRNAs were compared as substrates for the first step of in vitro splicing (5' cleavage and lariat formation) and in vitro s...